Editorials & Other Articles

JudyM

(29,280 posts) Tue Jul 9, 2019, 10:04 PM Jul 2019

Donald Trump has done less to destroy democratic norms than Mitch McConnell

...McConnell is the living, breathing, calculating face of everything that is wrong with our current politics. To the extent to which our system has become dysfunctional, McConnell is the single chief architect of that sclerosis. President Donald Trump is a dangerous, blundering wrecking ball, but McConnell was undermining the system well before (and is likely to outlast) him.
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The tradition which McConnell is actually upholding is fairly new, but one of which he is a tireless practitioner: The idea that securing power for one’s political party is the single most important goal, to be pursued regardless of cost to, say, institution, country or constituents.

McConnell claims to be a Senate traditionalist and presumably self-identifies as a patriot. But given the opportunity to preserve Senate traditions or maximize partisan gain, there’s little evidence that McConnell even understands the question. The Garland power play was without precedent in history and whacked away at the kind of interparty cooperation necessary for our system to work.

And he wasn’t done: Later on in 2016, he famously refused to cooperate in a joint government statement decrying Russian interference in our election. A foreign adversary was assaulting our system, and McConnell couldn’t see past his party affiliation because they were helping his side. Perhaps in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to wreck our system, McConnell saw a kindred spirit.
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The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank once wrote that McConnell’s tombstone should include the inscription: “He broke America.”

More: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/donald-trump-has-done-less-destroy-democratic-norms-mitch-mcconnell-ncna1011451

The article is a good summary of his malignant “leadership.”